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TRIBUNAL
The Weight Of Remembrance

20 Buck Spin (2023)
Rating: 8.5/10

Another long-awaited debut opus has laid itself upon the altar and demand us worship at its darkened façade. In this instant it is Tribunal, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based duo that blesses us with a staggering exhibition of Gothic doom metal that is rich with atmosphere due to being built upon sonic foundations of aching cello, hefty riffs, mournful and haunting vocals and yawning chasms of abyssal gloom.

This is stirring, pitch black doom metal meandering that displays its layers as if they were rain-soaked petals of some withered yet forever lasting flower that has seen all weathers and yet which revels in the pallid solace of drizzle and thunderclaps.

Led by the enchanting tones of Soren Mourne, The Weight Of Remembrance has all the wisps and vapours one would crave from such a creaking volume. Fans of classic My Dying Bride will bow in the shadows of such a majestically morose output as for 48 minutes you become entranced but also dragged into the billowy depths of this humid cavern.

The uneasiness of the leering shadows is caused by the vocal outpourings of Etienne Flinn who embarks upon stark barks of morbidity to accompany his deep, swirling guitar tone which oozes through the crumbling citadels like a congealed river of bone-strewn gravy. However, one can only marvel at the grand yet imposing chords this album has to offer as ‘Initiation’ leaks from the web-ridden rafters like some Gothic gaping void as both members enthral yet unnerve the audience to the soundtrack of arduous yet vast soundscapes of lumbering menace and grandiose morbidity.

‘Of Creeping Moss And Crumbled Stone’ hits like a cauldron of boiling syrup tumbling from a castle window; eerie, cavernous trudges march through the stifling blackness while an almost traditional metal chord snakes fervently between. Each track is a slow unravelling of sombre emotion; toying like some playful entity the chords stretch like unfathomable pillars of black smoke causing one to continually look over their shoulder to check for some uninvited guest.

‘Apathy’s Keep’ traipses with eerie aplomb and yet becomes riddled with a bombastic horror amplified by Soren Mourne’s commanding ghostly moans and that rustic cello. The interlude known as ‘Remembrance’ is brief respite, sandwiched in-between such gargantuan crawls of stifling menace. ‘A World Beyond Shadow’, ‘Without Answer’ and ‘The Path’ cement the fear of unnameable forms that have been constructed by way of such spellbinding, monolithic doom.

The familiar nods towards late 80s and early 90s doom are frequent, while Tribunal is also happy to loiter in the contemporary occult-influenced stirrings. But with so many classical nuances and a general feeling of the majestic, one can only admire such expansive revealing as black metal shrieks cavort with death / doom bellows. In turn, strains of gruelling dread fuse with saddened yet enigmatic creeping; sweeping signatures of a band that has effortlessly tapped into several known genres but applied their own grandiose methodology.

The Weight Of Remembrance is a fantastic debut album to not only shiver in fear at, but to cosy up to once you become accustomed to its foreboding contours.

Neil Arnold

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